2011 Spring Imperial Yunnan Fengqing Golden Buds

Fully oxidized tea leaves for a robust cup.


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Aug 2nd, '13, 22:39
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2011 Spring Imperial Yunnan Fengqing Golden Buds

by JD » Aug 2nd, '13, 22:39

Got some of this tea from Jas-eTea.

I've been trying to gongfu it. 5 grams leaf to 3.2 ounces water in a glass gaiwan. Very short infusion time of 5 seconds. Water at 208F. 1 short rinse.

Do people normally skip drinking the 1st and 2nd infusions of this type of tea when gongfu'ing it? Or do they lengthen rinsing it to wash off the astringency? The first couple infusions are just too astringent for my tastes. Later infusions are much mellower and sweeter.

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Aug 8th, '13, 05:17
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Re: 2011 Spring Imperial Yunnan Fengqing Golden Buds

by Tead Off » Aug 8th, '13, 05:17

JD wrote:Got some of this tea from Jas-eTea.

I've been trying to gongfu it. 5 grams leaf to 3.2 ounces water in a glass gaiwan. Very short infusion time of 5 seconds. Water at 208F. 1 short rinse.

Do people normally skip drinking the 1st and 2nd infusions of this type of tea when gongfu'ing it? Or do they lengthen rinsing it to wash off the astringency? The first couple infusions are just too astringent for my tastes. Later infusions are much mellower and sweeter.
why would you gongfu this tea?

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Oct 24th, '13, 09:49
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Re: 2011 Spring Imperial Yunnan Fengqing Golden Buds

by AlexZorach » Oct 24th, '13, 09:49

JD wrote:Got some of this tea from Jas-eTea.

I've been trying to gongfu it. 5 grams leaf to 3.2 ounces water in a glass gaiwan. Very short infusion time of 5 seconds. Water at 208F. 1 short rinse.

Do people normally skip drinking the 1st and 2nd infusions of this type of tea when gongfu'ing it? Or do they lengthen rinsing it to wash off the astringency? The first couple infusions are just too astringent for my tastes. Later infusions are much mellower and sweeter.
I never skip the 2nd infusion.

If the second infusion is still too astringent, I'd have three suggestions to try:

You could try using less leaf. Although 5 grams is a good default amount to use with Gong Fu, it may be too much for some teas. I find that if I'm having trouble pouring fast enough to get the steeping times short enough that they're not too strong, then I'm using too much leaf.

Alternatively, you could lengthen the rinse and shorten the next infusion...but this may be wasting some of the good flavor of the leaves.

Also, alternatively, you could try lowering the brewing temperature. Usually golden bud teas work fine for me with boiling or near-boiling water, but I have sometimes seen recommendations to use significantly cooler water, so you could try that too. It's common for me to encounter green teas that are too astringent if the water is too hot, so it's conceivable that this could also happen with black teas (although it's never happened to one I've brewed).

It also could be that this tea is just too astringent for your tastes. Some teas just have more astringency than others.

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